Swine Fever Seen With Two Routes From Russia to Europe

Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Russia’s food safety watchdog, known
as Rosselkhoznadzor, highlighted two routes by which African
Swine Fever may spread from Russia into Europe.

The virus, which is deadly for pigs and harmless for
humans, may spread from Russia’s southern areas through Ukraine
to Romania and Austria, Rosselkhoznadzor said on its website
today. Another possible route is from Russia’s northwestern
regions to Belarus, the Baltic states, Poland and Germany.

ASF has affected 308 Russian areas in 27 regions since 2007
and caused more than 540,000 hogs to be slaughtered, according
to Rosselkhoznadzor data. Wild boars are seen as one of the main
possible virus transmitters from Russia to Europe, according to
the service, which said it’s “ready for international and
regional cooperation” to combat the threat.

The disease has established a “firm foothold” in the
Caucasus region, the United Nations’ Food & Agriculture
Organization said yesterday, noting that the recent first-ever
detection of the disease in Ukraine represented a major warning.

As well as Ukraine, nearby countries like Moldova,
Kazakhstan and Latvia, which have large pig populations raised
on household or family farms, are “at high risk of disease
introduction,” the FAO said.